ValenciaHard blow to the PP, which has received another setback in a case of corruption in the Valencian Country. The former president of the Generalitat Valenciana and former Minister of Labor Eduardo Zaplana has been sentenced to ten years and five months in prison in what is known as the Erial case. The fourth section of the Provincial Court of Valencia has found him guilty of the crimes of prevarication, bribery, falsification of commercial documents and money laundering. In addition, it imposes on him 17 years and 10 months of disqualification for employment in public office, three more for the exercise of his profession and fines exceeding 25 million euros, as reported by the Superior Court of Justice of territory
In this case, the collection of commissions derived from the ITV concessions and the Valencian wind plan has been judged, a scandal that has splashed the former Valencian president who went so far as to denounce political persecution against him in several interviews this year, after the case went to trial last May. Despite the strong sentence, the court has acquitted Zaplana of the crime of criminal group, although it has decreed the confiscation of various assets and amounts involved during the investigation of the case.
According to the text of the sentence, the former president received bribes from numerous businessmen such as the controversial Cotino family, with the businessman Vicente Cotino involved and also the former president of the Valencian Courts Juan Cotino, who was also splashed by case Gürtel and with a trajectory turned upside down after it overturned during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Valencia, which coincided with the fateful metro accident in the capital of Túria. He also convicted Francisco Pérez López for the plot; lawyer and tax advisor Francisco Grau; Zaplana’s former chief of staff, Juan Francisco García; and Zaplana’s friend who acted as his figurehead, Joaquín Barceló. These six accused collaborators of Zaplana have received sentences between one year and three months and seven and a half years in prison for embezzlement, bribery, forgery and money laundering.
The other eight defendants have been acquitted after the Prosecutor’s Office withdrew the accusation for three of them or for not appreciating evidence to support a conviction. Among them is the former president of the Generalitat, José Luis Olivas. The sentence consists of 364 pages and now the former Valencian president and the other convicts can only appeal to the Supreme Court.
